1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an edible batter coating for foods which is applied to the food prior to cooking, readily adheres to the food, and which enhances the appearance and taste of the ultimate cooked product.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is of course well known to provide various foods with some type of edible coating prior to frying or baking. For years breaded pork chops have been prepared by seasoning the uncooked chop with salt and pepper and then dipping it into a fluid such as milk or a well-beaten egg, applying bread crumbs, followed by pan frying in a shortening. We are also familiar with the dipping of an uncooked food piece into a highly viscous batter followed by deep fat frying of the batter-coated food item. In short, the art is replete with many techniques and coatings for food products which serve to enhance the appearance and taste of the product when fried or baked.
Edible food coatings are also available which, when applied to food such as a chicken part or pork chop, and subsequently baked, are said to give the appearance of the coated product having been fried. Mancuso et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,586,512 discloses such an edible coating in a powdered form. After the food has been coated with the powder, it is baked at an appropriate temperature and time, and the resultant cooked product is said to exhibit the appearance of a fried food. The Mancuso et al product utilizes powdered fat, a farinaceous material such as wheat flour, a binder such as starch, CMC, soy protein and a dye.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,843,827 to Lee et al and 4,068,009 to Rispoli, disclose other products and techniques to achieve a baked food product with the texture and appearance of a fried product. The patents disclose a batter and dry mix coating.
Although all of the foregoing are seemingly effective in providing baked food products which have the appearance of being fried, each of the Lee et al and Rispoli et al products have the drawback in that the consumer must go through two separate operations; i.e., first, coating the food with a batter followed by a second step of providing the batter-coated product with a dry mix coating. The Mancuso et al product of course requires a dye and also the coating technique requires that the consumer coat the food product within a bag or other type of container.
With the foregoing in mind, there exists a need for an edible coating for foods which can be easily applied to the food by the consumer and the thusly coated food when baked has all the attributes of a batter-coated, deep fat fried, crispy food product. It is preferable that such a product be shelf stable for an extended period of time, should readily adhere to the food item being coated, and, if possible, be designed so that it does not require preservatives or special processing to achieve shelf stability.